Tony Blair was questioned for a second time by police investigating cash-for-honours allegations it has emerged, after a six-day news blackout. The interview, which lasted 45 minutes, took place in No 10 last Friday and was kept secret at the request of police. Mr Blair, also interviewed in December, was again treated as a witness. Police are investigating whether cash was donated to political parties in exchange for honours. All involved in the claims have denied any wrongdoing. Mr Blair's official spokesman said the prime minister was not interviewed under caution and was not accompanied by a lawyer - although a civil service note-taker was present. A Scotland Yard statement said the news blackout was requested for "operational reasons", but gave no further details. ... http://news.bbc.co.uk

Russian prosecutors are investigating allegations that hospital staff in Yekaterinburg gagged babies because they did not want to hear them crying. The patient at the hospital in the southern Urals who reported the case heard the children's muffled cries. She used her mobile phone to film a baby lying in a cot with his mouth taped, while others had dummies taped to their mouths. They are all orphans. The case, covered widely by Russian media, has caused deep shock. Russians are used to scandals in the hospital, but this case has touched a raw nerve, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow. Criminal probe The patient who reported the incident, Elena Kuritsyna, had been in the hospital with her own children. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6319439.stm

Burundi has offered to contribute to the proposed African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia, following an AU appeal for soldiers. Foreign Minister Antoinette Batumubwira told the BBC that Burundi could send up to 1,000 troops. The AU has struggled to raise the 8,000 troops it wants to send to Somalia, to replace Ethiopian soldiers, who have started to withdraw. Earlier, Malawi denied reports that it had agreed to contribute. Meanwhile, a protest against their deployment has been held in an ex-Islamist stronghold in the capital. Analysts fear that unless the growing insecurity in the country is contained quickly, Somalia will slip back to the anarchic misrule which has prevailed in the country for the past 16 years...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6319937.stm

An oil spill from an unidentified source has hit Vietnam's central coast, blackening popular resort beaches as thousands of local people help with the cleanup, officials said Thursday. Authorities are investigating the source of the spill that reached the coast Tuesday night in Quang Nam province, said Nguyen Ngoc Dung, director of the provincial Natural Resources and Environment Department. "Oil is everywhere at sea," he said. "In some areas it's as far as 12 miles." The spill has affected beaches along the coast in the ancient town of Hoi An, a UNESCO recognized site, Dung said. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2841122

Parliament has voted for an amnesty for leaders accused of war crimes during a quarter-century of fighting, arguing that it would help heal the deep divisions in Afghanistan. The amnesty resolution, passed in the lower house Wednesday, covers the mujahedeen leaders who led the resistance against the Soviet occupation of the 1980s and later turned their weapons on one another, plunging the country into civil war. Lawmaker Sayed Mustafa Kazmi, who backed the resolution, said it was aimed at fostering national unity. But rights activists have called for Afghanistan's factional leaders and warlords to face prosecution for the massacres and torture they allegedly committed in their struggle for power, especially during the 1992-96 civil war. Only justice, the rights advocates say, will heal the wounds of Afghanistan's traumatic past. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2841140

The admitted boss of the Genovese organized crime family's South Florida operations pleaded guilty Thursday to federal racketeering charges and could spend 20 years in prison. Renaldi "Ray" Ruggiero, 73, admitted in a plea agreement that he was a "capo" in the New York-based Mafia family and supervised a crew that committed numerous crimes including extortion, robbery, money laundering and possession of stolen property. "I plead guilty, your honor," Ruggiero told U.S. District Judge James Cohn. Sentencing was set for April 27 for Ruggiero, who could also be fined $25,000. Ruggiero pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, but did not agree to cooperate with federal Mafia investigators in his deal. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2841143